Tweets - Asside from some early drizzle that cleared fairly quickly, it was
a delightful day at Marymoor today. We were about a dozen people, and we
had good birds intermittently all day. The rest of the time Matt and I
filled with atrocious puns. What could be better.

Highlights:

SNOW GOOSE One flew overhead in a flock of Canadas
D.-c. Cormorant First of Fall
Barn Owl Scott had one at 6:30 a.m.
SHORT-EARED OWL We had two in the East Meadow at 7:25
Pileated Woodpecker I heard one near the mansion
HORNED LARK 1 at Compost Piles, flew south
American Pipit More than 1, grass fields, various times
Townsend's Warbler Great looks in Ash Tree, Dog Meadow
Western Meadowlark Three from the Compost Piles, 1 singing

We were due to meet at 7:30. At 7:15, Matt, Brian, and I gave up on trying
for Scott's Barn Owl. I decided to walk back along the grass trail on the
east edge of the East Meadow. As I neared the north end, a SHORT-EARED OWL
flushed from the tall grass and glided to the northeast. Maybe one or two
minutes later, a second SEOW came flying in from the *northwest* carrying
some kind of fairly large rodent. It flew right over Brian, Matt, and
Scott, flew past me, and landed about where the first owl had been.

Duck numbers were absurdly low. By the time we got to the Rowing Club, we'd
seen a total of 5 MALLARDS. That's it. The lake was empty - not even a
coot. From the Rowing Club dock, though, we found 3 GADWALL, and walking
back past the ponds, Sharon spotted a male HOODED MERGANSER, thus tripling
our species count for ducks. There were also 4-5 AMERICAN COOTS in the
slough.

South of the windmill, we watched a juvenile RED-TAILED HAWK drop out of a
tree and catch some very small prey which it ate in 1 bite before returning
to the tree.

Brian and I went to the private cabana afterwards for a last scan of the
lake. There had been Pied-billed Grebe out there, but we'd also seen what
looked like Western Grebe, but we'd been unable to confirm. From the
cabana, we saw several WEGR and about the same number of Horned Grebe.

For the day, 62 species.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland, WA
== http://www.marymoor.org/birding.htm
== http://www.marymoor.org/BirdBlog.htm
== birdmarymoor at verizon.net